Sofia Rotaru

Her older sister, Zinaida ("Zina"), was born on 11 October 1942.

Zina endured severe childhood illness and went blind, but possessed perfect pitch and easily memorized new songs, so she taught Sofia folk songs.

Sofia said of her elder sister: "We all learned from her – what a musical memory, what a soul!".

Zina spent hours listening to the radio and learned numerous songs, as well as the Russian language, which she later taught to her brothers and sisters.

At home, the Rotaru family spoke only Romanian.

As a child, Sofia participated in regional competitions of pentathlon and running.

She started singing from the first grade in the school choir, as well as in the church choir.

However, the latter was not acceptable to the school officials.

Hence, she was threatened with an exclusion from the Young Pioneer organization.

Rotaru was attracted by the theatre.

She practiced in drama classes and sang popular folk songs in vocal classes.

In the evenings, she used to take the only bayan at school and hide in the barn trying to find the proper melodies for her most loved Moldavian songs.

Rotaru said:""It is difficult to say, when and how did the music appear in my life.

It seems that it has always lived in me.

I grew up among music, it was playing everywhere: at a wedding table, at klatches, at girls' winter evening gatherings, on the dance floor...""

Injured, he returned home only in 1946, and was the first person to join the Communist Party in the village.

Sofiia Mykhailivna Yevdokymenko-Rotaru (Софі́я Миха́йлівна Рота́ру ; Софи́я Миха́йловна Рота́ру; born 7 August 1947), known simply as Sofia Rotaru, is a Ukrainian pop singer of Romanian origin.

Rotaru's victory at a vocal competition of amateur performers opened the door to a regional review in 1962.

In 1963 in Chernivtsi, she earned a first degree diploma at the regional amateur art review.

In 1964, she won the all-republic festival of popular talents in Kyiv.

On this occasion her picture made it on the cover of No. 27 of the magazine Ukraine in 1965.

Rotaru, nicknamed "Bukovinsky Solovey" ("the Nightingale from Bukovina"), emerged in 1966 as a pop folk star in the movie Solovei iz sela Marshyntsi (Nightingale from Marshyntsi) in the Romanian and Ukrainian-speaking world after her manager and future husband Anatoliy Yevdokymenko made her change her music style from folk to pop music with Chervona Ruta.

She first gained international recognition after participating in 1968 in the International Youth Song Festival in Bulgaria and winning first prize at the Golden Orpheus in 1973 and second prize in the category of Polish songs at the Sopot International Song Festival in 1974.

In the former USSR her career was marked by her stage success and numerous controversies.

She has been acknowledged by the Kyiv Patriarchate.

In 1972, she released the multilingual album Sofia Rotaru, re-released three times and covered by numerous singers, establishing herself as a viable pop artist in the countries of the former Soviet Union.

In August 2002 former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma and President of Russia Vladimir Putin gave awards to Sofia Rotaru for her 55th birthday, bestowing upon her the high rank of the Hero of Ukraine for her "outstanding personal merits in the sphere of art", and the Russian order "For merits before the Nation", respectively.

Rotaru's official surname is Yevdokymenko-Rotaru.

Yevdokymenko was the surname of her late husband.

Yalta is her main residence, although she also has homes in Moscow, Kyiv, and Baden-Baden.

Sofia Rotaru, who comes from the Romanian minority in Ukraine, was born in Marshyntsi (Marșenița), Chernivtsi Oblast to a family of brigadiers and wine-growers.

Marshyntsi is a village of Novoselytskyi Raion (Noua Suliță), close to the border with Moldova, and the majority of its population is Romanophone (Romanian-speaking).

She was the second child in a family of six children.

Her siblings are Zina, Lidia, Aurica, Eugen and Anatol.

A passport office employee misreported her birthdate on her passport as 9 August; as a result, Rotaru reportedly celebrates her birthday twice.

Her father, Mykhail Fedorovich Rotaru, spent World War II as a heavy machine gunner and traveled to Berlin.

Rotaru has been performing for more than 40 years, and topped the Moscow airplay with "Ya nazovu planetu imenem tvoim" in 2008.

She reported the highest income of all celebrities in Ukraine in 2008 and 2010.

Her repertoire consists of more than 40 albums and 400 songs recorded in many languages.

She has received awards, deemed a Meritorious Artist of the Ukrainian SSR, People's Artist of Ukraine, People's Artist of Moldavian SSR, Laureate of the Young Communist League Prize, Hero of Moldova, and Cavalier of the Republican Order of Moldova.